Congress tightens U.S. manufacturing rules after battery technology ends up in China
The Department of Energy allowed a taxpayer-funded breakthrough in batteries to transfer overseas with little oversight
A new federal law, passed after the Department of Energy allowed the export of taxpayer-funded battery technology to China, aims to tighten restrictions on sending such government discoveries abroad.
Initially, the "Invent Here, Make Here Act" will apply only to programs in the Department of Homeland Security. But the law's sponsors in Congress say they plan to expand it to the DOE and other agencies next.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, the measure after an NPR into how breakthrough battery technology from a U.S. government lab wound up at a company in China. The bill with wide support in December as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
